Born on this day is former Sunderland player Steven Agnew. The Shipley born midfielder signed for Sunderland in January 1995 after an impressive spell at Leicester City, where he captained the Foxes to promotion in his first full season at Filbert Street.
Agnew was signed by the ever eccentric Mick Buxton and would make his first full debut on the 14th January in a 0-0 draw away to Oldham. Within months of signing for Sunderland, Peter Reid took over from Mick Buxton and Agnew would play a vital role in Reid’s title winning side in 1995-96, making 28 starting appearances. Agnew scored a memorable goal at Old Trafford, levelling an FA Cup 3rd round tie 1-1 that would end 2-2 with a last minute Eric Cantona goal after Craig Russell had given Sunderland the lead.
Upon promotion to the top-flight Agnew, like our form in our first Premier League season, was poor. He was played mainly on the right of midfield and struggled to nail down in the team’s starting eleven. Agnew started the 97-98 season with a place in our starting eleven, but suffered an Achilles injury which would rule him out for the rest of the season.
Agnew was released by Sunderland in 1998, and would move on to spend three years at York City, before moving to Gateshead. The midfielder took up coaching whilst at Gateshead, and would go on to hold coaching roles at Middlesbrough, Hartlepool, Aston Villa, Sheffield Wednesday, Newcastle and right now he is Steve Bruce's assistant head coach at West Brom, following him from their time together with the Mags.
